Lead structures, collars, harnesses and the like are available in various designs intended to control domesticated animals. A common arrangement, particularly for use with dogs, is the use of a collar fastened around the neck of an animal, with the collar attached to a lead. The person controlling the animal grasps a handle at the proximal end of the lead and the distal end of the lead is attached to the collar.
With such a collar arrangement, it is desirable that the lead is easily attachable to the collar and can be removed, for instance, to allow the animal to roam freely.
Domestic animals, such as dogs, may need to be brought under control rapidly depending upon the prevailing circumstances. In such a situation, to protect the safety of the dog or the safety of others, it may be necessary to rapidly attach a lead to a dog already wearing a collar, or it may be necessary to attach a collar to the dog rapidly so that a lead can subsequently be attached to bring the dog under control.
Typical prior art collars, particularly dog collars, have used conventional buckle and strap arrangements, with a pin-buckle adjustable on a strap with poles through which the pin passes. Other known arrangements use, for instance, Velcro™ straps in order to provide adjustment of the collar. Another known arrangement uses a toothed belt and ratchet combination where the collar is fastened by inserting the distal end of a toothed belt into a slider having a ratchet, and the belt is tightened by pushing the toothed belt into the slider with the ratchet grasping the toothed belt.
The usual manner for attachment of a lead to a collar is the use of a fastening loop, enclosed by a rim, attached to the collar interlocked with a hooked clip provided at the distal end of the lead. To attach the lead to the collar, the hooked clip is engaged with the fastening loop by hooking the loop so that the loop enters an aperture defined by the hooked clip through an opening. The opening is then closed, by some gate means, to prevent the fastening loop inadvertently disengaging from the hooked clip. The fastening loop may have a rim of flexible plastic or cord attached to a collar or harness, but is typically a metal ring or D-ring, with the ring forming the rim of the loop, attached to a collar or harness.
By “hooked clip” is meant an attachment means in the form of an arcuate body enclosing an opening or aperture with a gap in the arcuate body through which a fastening loop can pass so that the fastening loop may interlock with the arcuate body. The gap will be between opposed terminals of the arcuate body, at least one of which is positioned to provide a hook shape to facilitate interengagement of the arcuate body and the rim of the fastening loop. The gap is typically closable by a sprung gate, which may by pushed open by the rim of the fastening loop to permit entry of the fastening loop through the gap as the hook is clipped onto the loop. In another embodiment, a screw fastener may be used to close the gap once the fastening loop and arcuate body are interengaged.
Typical hooked dips used for animal leads include spring clips such as karabiner arrangements which have a sprung side arm or gate which closes the hook aperture after the hooked clip has been attached to the collar. Maillon type arrangements or shackles may also be used where the clip is openable by means of a screw arrangement or, for instance, slide clips where a section of the clip is slidably removable to allow a gap to be formed through which a D-ring can pass in order to engage with a clip. All of these arrangements require some degree of manipulation when disengaging hooked clip from the fastening loop on the collar, and this may be difficult to achieve when the lead is held under tension, for instance by an animal straining on the lead.
A problem with prior art arrangements as set out above is that in order to release the animal from the lead, manipulation of the hooked clip is necessary in order to disengage the hooked clip from the fastening loop in order to open any gate arrangement and to detach the fastening loop from within the aperture of the hooked clip so that the animal is released or unleashed. This may be particularly difficult to achieve when the animal is struggling or when the animal is straining to be unleashed, so that the lead, fastening loop and hooked clip are held under tension, so that the hooked clip will have to be urged against the tension of the straining animal in order to remove or disengage the rim of the fastening loop from the hooked clip, possibly whilst also holding open the gate arrangement of the hooked clip to permit the fastening loop to be disengaged. This may be of particular importance for leads for working animals such as flock-control dogs, guard dogs and police dogs, where the dog may be straining to be released to do its job, and where the delay resulting from the manipulation required to permit release could be inconvenient or dangerous. For instance, delay in releasing a guard dog or a police dog could give time for an assailant to assault the dog handler.
Hence, there is a need for a collar arrangement and for collar and lead assemblies which overcome or address at least some of the problems set out above.